Recognition

A lovely cool year with destemmed berries. Matured in one third new barriques for eight months. Satsuma plum, wild raspberries and Alpine strawberries. A cherry blossom prettiness and pulled paperbark earthiness. Dry powdery tannins surge forward providing a veil across …

The second release of the Definitus, sourced from a specific block within the Foggy Hill Northwestern slope. Here in the warmer vintage we see the aging potential of this unique bottling. Boysenberries, ironstone, cured meats and five spice. A potent …

The march towards ever more delicate versions of the Tapanappa Foggy Hill Pinot Noir continues. Each vintage, this Fleurieu Peninsula wine gets a little more contained, with a bit more Pinosity. That’s not saying the previous vintages of Brian Croser’s …

There are very few Australian Pinot releases where you crack a bottle open and think, ‘This needs six years’. It just doesn’t happen. Bindi, maybe, some of the structured Yarra Pinot releases (Mount Mary sometimes), Bannockburn, By Farr, Domaine A. …

The red berry scent is complemented by hints of star anise, mint and high quality oak. Lingering varietal flavour carries the tannin firmness well. Needs 3-5 years.

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The 2018 Definitus Pinot Noir Foggy Hill is darker in the glass than the Foggy Hill Pinot tasted beside it, and this wine enters with a rich cascade of cherry and woodsy spice, forest underbrush/sous bois, aged leather and old …

Medium-full red/brick-red colour; the bouquet is mellow, complex and loaded with charred roast-meat, dried mushroom and sousbois characters, earthy/dried-herb and leather nuances, traces of tobacco as well. The structure is firm and the tannins provide backbone and extend the length …

Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Fleurieu Peninsula Pinot Noir 2023 scores 95 points from Mike Bennie. “A fine-boned, texturally-structured and firm Pinot 

Noir of dark cherry, raspberry and earthy undertones dashed with saltbush and spice. The grippy, minerally texture and fine …

Pale crimson in the glass, the swill itself deft, dignified. This poise, together with tight bright fruit, leads the trajectory for this remarkable wine from the cool and late ripening ’23 vintage. The wine is well-lit and the bouquet carries …

At the highest point of the Fleurieu Peninsula, half-way between Victor Harbour and Cape Jervis, lies the Foggy Hill Vineyard. Its Pinot Noir is quite exceptional from year to year. Even in very cool years like 2023, the vineyard produces …

2023 was a cooler vintage than some on the Fleurieu Peninsula, indeed the coolest of four such years for the Foggy Hill vineyard. The cooler year led the team to forego any whole bunches in the ferment. The wine spent …

This was an exceptionally cool vintage. Despite that, the colour is light but with a glowing intensity and vibrancy. The nose reveals that distinctive spicy character with savoury and slightly limestone-like characters. The palate is still tightly coiled with fine …

Sometimes, the early sell out of a wine is actually good news for drinkers. Take the Definitis ’21 Pinot Noir which quickly sold out leaving the door open for Tapanappa owner/ winemaker, Brian Croser, to dig deep into the cellar …

The 2021 vintage of Definitus sold out so quickly that the team decided to release a little of their museum stocks of the 2018 alongside the 2023 Foggy Hill. Given only 430 dozen were made in the first place, you …

This is a re-release of this wine from the excellent 2018 vintage. This was the second release of this wine which comes from a special and defined part of the vineyard. It’s an immensely powerful no-holds-barred Pinot loaded with blue …

This multi-layered 2018 Pinot Noir is in excellent condition at 6 years of age as it radiates with cherry pit, and dark earth are topped by gamey, spicy aged tones. Vibrant and energetic with ample gravel /iron stone with a …

One whiff and this Tapanappa Foggy Hill showcases its pinosity. From a cooler, low cropping year, give it some time to show its best.

Let it breathe to witness red berries, briar, black tea, tilled earth, compost and cola gradually …

The fourth consecutive cool vintage, and the coolest of the last four too. I have a weather station in my back yard, and I like to look at the data, and in this way, I feel a sort of kinship …

Foggy Hill is Brian Croser’s latest (albeit one twenty years in the making) passion project, down on the Southern tip of the Fleurieu.

Cool, maritime influenced, the site for this stunningly consistent Pinot. 

Leads with a floral, rose-raspberry mix over Sage. …

Brian Croser’s flagship pinot noir comes from just 10 rows of Dijon clones – 777 and 115 – planted in the Foggy Hill Vineyard on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The name might sound a bit like a spell from Harry Potter, …

It smells almost steely to me, which I like, and in with that there’s a pleasing green herb, mint and rosy perfume, cherry and strawberry, some cedar/pencil oak too. It’s medium-bodied with excellent structure, the quality of the tannin here …

The Tapanappa label is the result of a 40+ year mission of veteran winemaker Brian Croser and his family to make world-class wines from the most “distinguished sites” in South Australia. The Foggy Hill vineyard on the Fleurieu Peninsula might …

Sassafras, bing cherry, licorice root and orange balm. Filigreed tannins and a diaphanous weave of freshness and pungency, with a moreish core of porcini dashi. Yet the end result is a lighter weighted pinot in an Australian context. Refreshing enough, …